The US Navy Has Opened A 'Hunger Games' Style Arena For Military Robots

The Tropical High Bay,
part of the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research, is a 60'
by 40' greenhouse that contains a re-creation of a southeast
Asian rain forest. In the Tropical High Bay, temperatures average
80 degrees with 80 percent humidity year
round.U.S. Naval Research
Laboratory

A new U.S. Navy lab can track every movement of battlefield
robots as they struggle to survive arenas built to resemble
scorching deserts, wave-pounded shores and tropical rain forests.

The lab's biggest environment has high-speed video cameras that
automatically swivel to follow up to 50 ground
robots, flying
drones and even human soldiers. Such intense
surveillance of man-made survival settings may remind science
fiction readers of "The Hunger Games" — a popular book series
turned Hollywood film(s) where "game makers" construct huge,
naturalistic arenas to feature reality television displays of
battles to the death.

"Our tracking system currently has the largest capture volume in
existence," said Alan Schultz, director of autonomous systems
research at U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Luckily, the NRL just wants to see how well humans
and robots can cooperate, rather than oversee a futuristic
death match. It officially opened its Laboratory for Autonomous
Systems Research on Friday (March 16).

The
Littoral High Bay, part of the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems
Research, features a 45' x 25' x 5.5' deep pool. This pool will
have a 16-channel wave generator, allowing researchers to create
directional waves.U.S. Naval
Research Laboratory

The biggest arena — about half the size of an American football
field — allows the NRL's own game makers to change the simulated
environment as they see fit. They can pipe in the sound of
marching troops or a background environment, adjust the lighting
to nighttime conditions, or even flood a 40-square-foot
(12-square-meter) area to a 4-inch (10-centimeter) depth to make
a shallow pool of water.

Robots must endure rain of up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) per
hour inside a Southeast Asian rain forest setting, with
temperatures averaging 80 degrees F (27 degrees C) and 80 percent
humidity. By contrast, a second desert setting includes a sand
pit, blowing winds and rock walls for robots to tackle.

A third setting combines a pool that's almost 6 foot (2 meter)
deep with a wave generator — an arena that can simulate surf-like
conditions on a sloping shore. Finally, an outdoor broadleaf
evergreen forest allows robots to wander around a fourth setting
with a waterfall, ponds and boulders.

Smaller rooms use eye trackers and multi-touch displays
to help study how human
users control robots. Electrical and machine shops can also
"print" robot parts directly based upon electronic designs or schematics.

The Navy's own robotic
firefighter that stands like a human and throws
extinguisher hand grenades is already being developed inside the
new lab, Schultz said. That means it may also represent one of
the first robots to run the gantlet in a number of extreme
survival conditions.